She married Hadrian in 100, at the Roman Empress Pompeia Plotina's request, for Hadrian to succeed her great uncle, in 117. Sabina's mother Matidia (Hadrian's second cousin) was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter.

Sabina was strong and independent and her beliefs in marriage didn't sit well with the Emperor. Sabina is rumored to have had an affair with Suetonius, a historian (and Hadrian's secretary), in the year 119.[1] Meanwhile her husband was thought to be more sexually interested in his favourite Antinous, and he and Sabina had no children of their own, though they adopted two sons. In 128, she was awarded the title of Augusta. Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137.[2] Hadrian's stone elegy for his wife "depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian."[3]